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(Subjective) Tekken looks as if it isn't taking itself seriously anymore over time

I think tekkens biggest problem is that everything is about keeping people in the air now. Combos are fine, but 3-5 hit combos. Having 2 chances during a match to counter because you are in the air for half the hp each time sucks. It's especially bad in tekken tag 2.
 
Overly 'Anime' fighting games really put me off too. I'm perfectly happy for them to exist but every fighting game (outside of maybe MK and KI) seems to have a heavy Anime influence.

Hopefully we see a return of Virtua Fighter. I remember that being at least a little more serious?
 
Tekken 4 is underrated. I loved its style. Ling, Paul and Jin had their best versions. Tekken 4 was the last one we actively played on the couch. No one here really cared for 5 onwards, sadly.

As for seriousness, I get what OP means. Tekken 1 had a bear but it was mostly about a guy making a deal with the devil out to murder his father. Story was good for a fighting game and Kaz being the Bad Guy in the sequel was unique. Later on we had a dozen of comedy characters and World War 3 and Azazel. And tentacles.

Gon was a console exclusive easter egg. And I hated him so much, that I wiped my save. He was never in my game. He fucked it up and fighting him was bs.
 
To me, Tekken lost it after Tekken 3, somehow got some of it back with Tekken 5 Dark Ressurection, then completely lost it again. To me, I find Tekken now really boring and that's a shame. Yes. That includes Tekken 7, which I played numerous times in the arcades in effort to see if the game really moved forward, but it hasn't moved forward enough.

Of course, im talking about gameplay.

Well If you are talking gameplay wise, have you played FR?
 
Nah, the rage art shouldn't be seen as a 'revenge meter', I mean it can work in that way, but generally speaking if you're just throwing it out, it's going to punish you much more often than you're rewarded for it.

If anything, the Tekken games have gotten much more complex, and gradually alienated the casual audience with time, with most of those who remain being the more dedicated figthting game enthusiasts. I think a big part of that has been the way the games have allowed combos to extend towards the half health mark, it can make the game seem very inaccessible to a new player.

That's never truly been the case in any FG though...
 
Tekken 4, for the most part, took itself very serious. It pretty much was the high point in the series as far as story. The problem was that all of the gameplay changes turned a lot of the fanbase off to it. Unfortunately the Tekken team took the criticism to mean that fabs hated every single aspect of Tekken 4 rather than just a few things. This is why we go from Paul's fantastic story of seeking redemption in pary 4, to challenging aliens like an absolute dumbass in part 5.

Or how about the blood feud between Marduk and King taking that turn in part 5 where Marduk beats uo Anna, and carries her unconscious body away while saying "I always get what I want!"

Yeah, Tekken's story and character design has really gone down the toilet in the past few games.

The reason people hated T4 was it had terrible, terrible balance. Can hardly say it was a serious looking game either with OP Jins gross tribal design purple tracksuit.

I'm old as shit and been playing Tekken in arcades since the first one, it was always goofy as shit. If you wanna play a edgelord friendly 'dark' fighter, MK is thatta way.
 
I do miss the hauntingly dark to endearingly goofy tone the earlier Tekkens had for their lore and endings. Although a lot of that may have had to do with the limited tech during the PS1's CG era.
Agreed. Bring back the good ol days

tekken-gon.jpg
I'm laughing like a madman in a 24 hour laundromat. Thanks.
 
To me, Tekken never took itself seriously. Yeah, the more current games are definitely more sillier, nut I always felt that the game always had it elements of silliness in most of the iterations. I honestly think Tekken is trying to draw in a different demographic or crowd when it went into the more frivolous and anime-style content and tone. Tekken 7 seems to have went a little further with it with all of the very young fragile looking females, over-the-top stories, insane fighting styles, more mash-friendly crazy characters and even more over the top customizations to name a few. Does it bother me? Nah, not really. As long as Tekken has the core gameplay, cool designs and enjoyment that attracted me to it in the first place, I'll keep playing and supporting the franchise as long as they keep coming out. I do understand that some of it's eccentric moments or craziness could kind of turn off some old school fans though as they would want it to more be serious. Yeah, it is a somewhat different Tekken than what I grew up on, but so is Virtua Fighter, Final Fantasy and even Mortal Kombat which imo has even got a tad silly in some ways.
 
I think tekkens biggest problem is that everything is about keeping people in the air now. Combos are fine, but 3-5 hit combos. Having 2 chances during a match to counter because you are in the air for half the hp each time sucks. It's especially bad in tekken tag 2.

As mentoned before, Tekken ONE had 100% damage juggles with over 10 hits.

People who think juggling is something new in Tekken just didn't know how to play older games.

You want short juggles and a more 'realistic' style, VF still exists.
 
The reason people hated T4 was it had terrible, terrible balance. Can hardly say it was a serious looking game either with OP Jins gross tribal design purple tracksuit.

I'm old as shit and been playing Tekken in arcades since the first one, it was always goofy as shit. If you wanna play a edgelord friendly 'dark' fighter, MK is thatta way.

To me, Tekken never took itself seriously. Yeah, the more current games are definitely more sillier, nut I always felt that the game always had it elements of silliness in most of the iterations. I honestly think Tekken is trying to draw in a different demographic or crowd when it went into the more frivolous and anime-style content and tone. Tekken 7 seems to have went a little further with it with all of the very young fragile looking females, over-the-top stories, insane fighting styles, more mash-friendly crazy characters and even more over the top customizations to name a few. Does it bother me? Nah, not really. As long as Tekken has the core gameplay, cool designs and enjoyment that attracted me to it in the first place, I'll keep playing and supporting the franchise as long as they keep coming out. I do understand that some of it's eccentric moments or craziness could kind of turn off some old school fans though as they would want it to more be serious. Yeah, it is a somewhat different Tekken than what I grew up on, but so is Virtua Fighter, Final Fantasy and even Mortal Kombat which imo has even got a tad silly in some ways.

MK is pretty much like Tekken in a sense where its not overtly serious or silly. Of course games will take the tone in one way or another but neither series has never taken itself completely serious. The difference is the blood and gore which in itself can be silly at times (Look at the long list of normal fatalities and tell me you don't chuckle at a few).

I think the entire conversation is just people arguing over what they like most about the series and what they want in a series that either caters to them or has long since abandoned them.
 
Tekken has always been goofy, always centered around the Mishimas, and was widely regarded as "dial a combo" fighting.

Sounds like OP took this series a little too seriously.
 
I think tekkens biggest problem is that everything is about keeping people in the air now. Combos are fine, but 3-5 hit combos. Having 2 chances during a match to counter because you are in the air for half the hp each time sucks. It's especially bad in tekken tag 2.

Sadly, I think that applies to 90% of fighting games now in all fairness. That is one thing I appreciate more about some of the older fighting games. Sure, combos have always been a huge part of them, but with modern fighting games that seems to be the entire focus of them and people for some reason love 100 hit combos that do 80% damage. I think fighters should also be about the ground game, poking, more shorter or basic ground based combos, etc as well instead of both players constantly trying to go for launchers for that 60-70% 20 hit combo. Feels less honest and sort of takes a little bit of the element of strategy out imho.
 
As mentoned before, Tekken ONE had 100% damage juggles with over 10 hits.

People who think juggling is something new in Tekken just didn't know how to play older games.

You want short juggles and a more 'realistic' style, VF still exists.

Well, Virtua Fighter 5 is now ten years old with no sequel on the horizon that I know of and in all honesty, even VF5: FS combos started to get a little ridiculous compared to the previous games. Not to the extent of a Tekken, Marvel or Skullgirls, but they seemed longer and more damaging than previous games.
 
I think Tekken has always had two sides. The ultra-serious Mishima revenge drama, with the wacky endtimes storyline, war ravaged cities, pmc soldiers and whatnot, and on the other hand you have goofy characters like Jack, Yoshimitsu, the animals etc. tearing it up since day 1.
 
If only we lived in a world where T4 got an expansion like DR, BR and FR :/

Wouldn't really change much about what people didn't like about 4 though. People gotta remember that TTT1 was the pinnacle of the series in alot of people's minds at that point and that T4 was a huge departure for them like Tekken 6/TTT2 was for a lot of people today. it definitely wasn't about balance.

Sadly, I think that applies to 90% of fighting games now in all fairness. That is one thing I appreciate more about some of the older fighting games. Sure, combos have always been a huge part of them, but with modern fighting games that seems to be the entire focus of them and people for some reason love 100 hit combos that do 80% damage. I think fighters should also be about the ground game, poking, more shorter or basic ground based combos, etc as well instead of both players constantly trying to go for launchers for that 60-70% 20 hit combo. Feels less honest and sort of takes a little bit of the element of strategy out imho.

I watched a bunch of old FG footage before EVO and came to the conclusion that in most 2D games that focus less on said 70% combos and such starting around SF Alpha 1 were Terribly Slow and plodding. FGs today are still about the ground game and always will be, the difference is that its more reward for your ground game and the reward usually makes the game *look* better to those spectating. That's why even ST ends up being more exciting than 3rd Strike in a lot of ways because that is a really reward heavy game.

Soul Calibur Pre-4(maybe 3 really) wasn't a juggle heavy game setting it apart from its 3D brothers and sisters but I bet if you were to have SC2 out today it would seem very boring to those not playing.
 
I agree, OP. Yes, Tekken had Roger and Alex (I'm sure 90% of this thread will be reminding you of that) but these were always the outlier, "joke" characters. Now it's difficult to tell where the joke ends. It used to have a story that was distinguished from other fighting game stories because it actually made sense and was good but alas that is no more. As for the I-can-be-Street-Fighter-too gameplay additions: don't even get me started.

I'll probably pick up this new Tekken due to fighter drought right now but it's firmly on my "buy used" list because to hell with Harada and his new vision for Tekken.
 
I thought Tekken 2 in particular had a more serious tone.
Yes, I know, robots, animals etc... it was weird, but it didn't feel too over-the-top or garish.

Same with SF, even though the characters have always been cliched and cartoonish the tone of 2/3 definitely felt more serious than 4/5.
I particularly hate the characterisation of Blanka. If he comes back in 5 I'd like him to be the wild, feral beast he was in 2, using his claws and teeth to savagely attack.
Not the idiotic buffoon with googly eyes who hangs out with Dan.
 
I've been playing Tekken since the PSX days, and to me, the game has always been perceived as being typical Japanese insanity.
 
Tekken is as serious as its always been

Which is, kinda. There is a story and people have motivations, its just also unapolgetically stupid
 
Every Tekken we get complains that it's not serious anymore, and Rage arts / Rage drives are not making the game less serious because it's a much more elegant solution than Tekken 6 / TTT 2 rage mechanic.

I have to say though, that I complained about Vanilla Tekken 7 looking boring, but FR is looking more and more awesome every passing day, really pumped now.
 
I just cannot agree with, as you mistake your own bias for designs over actual reality. I am sorry, but a farting dinosaur are infinitely more dumb than an overweight man and a girl that dresses in clothes that people in japan probably actually wear (not saying like all do or it's main stream, but some excentric people totally do )

Just say that you don't like Lucky Chloe's design, don't pretend that it shows some overarching trend there. Since all she does is appeal to modern otakus, just like characters like Lily and Asuka appealed to otakus of their time, Xiaoiu appealed to other otakus. Like so many people pretend that pandering archetypes from their past are more legtimate because that's what they are used to O_o


Disclaimer: I personally couldn't care less about Lucky Chloe or in fact majority of newer characters, so dismissing me as defending a waifu won't do any good.
 
This sentiment is up there with "I hate how Metal Gear stopped being a realistic, gritty espionage story" in terms of how ridiculous it is

There's still plenty of Mishima-based drama. Hell isn't 7FR all about Kazumi begging Akuma to kill Heihachi for being sucha shitty human being?

If you're talking about how serious it is "as a fighting game"... it's Tekken. It's never been SF or VF for a reason.
 
Tekken never took itself seriously. It's fun as shit.

I agree. To me all the main 3D fighters are fun because they all play differently. When I was younger me and my friends would have Tekken, DOA, and Soul Calibur tournaments on the weekends. The only fighter we didn't have tournaments with was the Virtua Fighter games. I enjoy them because they are deeper than most other fighters, but alas most of my friends liked to button mash.
 
I'm not annoyed by the silliness so much as I am by the complete and total lack of restraint.

You can have humor without turning your game into an ugly clownshow.
 
There's a difference between being a fantasy based fighter and in between getting so silly to the point of absurdity.
 
My only problem in terms of it being too silly is the customisation stuff.
I'm fine with a raptor fighting a robot girl with chainsaw arms. I'm not fine with fighting as Kazuya in comically unfitting clothing with butterfly wings, a hat with a propeller, and throwing pizza at people.
 
The reason people hated T4 was it had terrible, terrible balance. Can hardly say it was a serious looking game either with OP Jins gross tribal design purple tracksuit.

I'm old as shit and been playing Tekken in arcades since the first one, it was always goofy as shit. If you wanna play a edgelord friendly 'dark' fighter, MK is thatta way.

Several of us already covered that the issue with Tekken 4 was mostly gameplay oriented. Recently when Harada and Murray were questioned about the possibility of Tekken 4's costumes coming back, they expressed surprise that people actually wanted anything from that game, which pretty much exactly proves my point about them reading the complaints wrong and running away from both the good and the bad parts of Tekken 4. Also, you thinking that Jin's jacket had a silly design is not proof of them not taking the overall story very serious in that game.

Secondly, I don't know why you bothered bringing up your age. I'm 30 and I live in NYC. I've been in arcades before and after Tekken was around. People were all about it because of how it looked at the time more than anything else. There wasn't much like it. Outside of the small handful of jokey or ridiculous looking characters, people weren't talking about how silly it was. People were talking about that guy Law that fights like Bruce Lee, or King having awesome looking pro wrestling grabs.

Lastly, Tekken 4's story, outside of maybe Jin's arc, is hardly "edgy". I'm not saying it was a masterpiece, but it was most definitely a step in a more interesting direction.
 
The cheese and weirdness facter is part of what made Tekken so popular. Even Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat didn't took themselves seriously.
 
Several of us already covered that the issue with Tekken 4 was mostly gameplay oriented. Recently when Harada and Murray were questioned about the possibility of Tekken 4's costumes coming back, they expressed surprise that people actually wanted anything from that game, which pretty much exactly proves my point about them reading the complaints wrong and running away from both the good and the bad parts of Tekken 4. Also, you thinking that Jin's jacket had a silly design is not proof of them not taking the overall story very serious in that game.

Secondly, I don't know why you bothered bringing up your age. I'm 30 and I live in NYC. I've been in arcades before and after Tekken was around. People were all about it because of how it looked at the time more than anything else. There wasn't much like it. Outside of the small handful of jokey or ridiculous looking characters, people weren't talking about how silly it was. People were talking about that guy Law that fights like Bruce Lee, or King having awesome looking pro wrestling grabs.

Lastly, Tekken 4's story, outside of maybe Jin's arc, is hardly "edgy". I'm not saying it was a masterpiece, but it was most definitely a step in a more interesting direction.


All of this and yeah I found the jacket comment odd cause as far as I know many loved it and thought it was cool. It was enough to bring it back for Tekken 5.
 
Heihachi:
I threw my son into a volcano and he turned into a devil creature. So did my Grandson also turn into a devil monster. I also train a bear to fight. I can also headbutt bullets.

Tekken has never been serious. Even in Tekken 1 you had devil monsters, robot ninjas and eccentric fighters.
 
Heihachi:
I threw my son into a volcano and he turned into a devil creature. So did my Grandson also turn into a devil monster. I also train a bear to fight. I can also headbutt bullets.

Tekken has never been serious. Even in Tekken 1 you had devil monsters, robot ninjas and eccentric fighters.

We already went through this. If you're going to choose to ignore the actual back and forth just to post the same nonsense, at least get your facts straight.

Devil was not in part 1.

Eccentric fighters? I guess Jack and Yoshimtsu sure, but most of the cast were just templates for martial arts, some of which were based on real life people and popular stories.

Kuma was mostly just a joke skin swap for Jack. The Heihachi connections weren't really there from the beginning.

And yet again, Tekken mostly took itself very seriously in Tekken 4.
 
Heihachi:
I threw my son into a volcano and he turned into a devil creature. So did my Grandson also turn into a devil monster. I also train a bear to fight. I can also headbutt bullets.

Tekken has never been serious. Even in Tekken 1 you had devil monsters, robot ninjas and eccentric fighters.

Are filicide and demonic possession not serious to you?
 
Tekken wasn't 100% serious but it was a balance of both silliness and serious tone. Things didn't get truly ridiculous til Tekken 5 when Heihachi sent off his entire family to space.

I loved that ending though lol.
 
I won't pretend that a boxing kangaroo and dinosaur weren't silly, but Tekken jumped the shark when they started offering the character customization. That was in 5, I think? Once players could adorn their character with absolutely ridiculous outfits, that was when it became almost comedic.

I'm a purist, I HATE the customization stuff. I always felt like their default, intended designs were good enough.
 
Are filicide and demonic possession not serious to you?

You actually took it seriously when someone threw another person into a volcano to kill them and then that person came back as a naked, purple imp?

Even when Tekken 2 was new, I remember the general mood surrounding it was one of being in on the fun. It has always been over the top and silly.
 
Heihachi:
I threw my son into a volcano and he turned into a devil creature. So did my Grandson also turn into a devil monster. I also train a bear to fight. I can also headbutt bullets.

Tekken has never been serious. Even in Tekken 1 you had devil monsters, robot ninjas and eccentric fighters.

/thread

Embrace the goofiness, the juggles, the questionable hairstyles, it's been around since Day 1.

The best addition in newer games has been the customisations, just bring back the really goony stuff from 6 please, so I can have amazingly accurate Dragunov Red Skull cosplay
 
We already went through this. If you're going to choose to ignore the actual back and forth just to post the same nonsense, at least get your facts straight.

Devil was not in part 1.

Devil was so in part 1, at least on the psx. The game also starred a goofy looking kazuya who survived being thrown off mountain as a boy to grow up and collect sneakers and flash goofy smiles at the camera.It has all of the silly tounge in cheek endings, all of the anime hair and anime designs, nothing has changed! And some characters liek Lee were at their absolute goofiest in Tekken 4.

SJr4JA5.jpg

PS1
 
Devil was so in part 1, at least on the psx. The game also starred a goofy looking kazuya who survived being thrown off mountain as a boy to grow up and collect sneakers and flash goofy smiles at the camera.It has all of the silly tounge in cheek endings, all of the anime hair and anime designs, nothing has changed! And some characters liek Lee were at their absolute goofiest in Tekken 4.

SJr4JA5.jpg

PS1

Fair enough. Even though it's just a hidden bonus skin and was not incorporated into the story at that point, I stand corrected.
 
And tbh what fighters these days take themselves seriously in the first place? VF might be the only one I can think of and shit I don't even play VF so I'm probably wrong.
 
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